Production
Helpful Hints

This section deals with specific
sublimation production tips. If you just want general information right now,
you can skip this part by going to the bottom of the page and "clicking" to
continue your tour. However, this section does demonstrate that producing sublimated
plates is easier than eating a bowl of "Corn Flakes".

As with most methods, there is more than one way to get good results. These
tips are just some of them.

Light Kills Cartridges - In
less than an hour, direct sunlight on a cartridge will almost destroy any drum.
Because light exposure is cumulative, even several total hours of exposure to
florescent lights can damage a drum. A drum damaged by light will have "dead
spots" and won't pick up toner in those areas. It is most noticeable when
printing heavy logos or thick long lines, like borders. Your will see a white
or lighter area, going across the page. When removing a sublimation cartridge
from your printer, even for a short time, store in a closed box.

Older Printers - If
your older printer (like the HP III, Apple LaserWriter II, etc.) uses an EP-S
cartridge, don't forget to change the cleaning wand every time you use a new cartridge (one is
supplied with every EP-S cartridge we sell). If you forget, your transfers will
start looking "trashy" very quickly.

Artwork and Layouts
- Make and save templates of your most common layouts. A lot of times you can
just call it up, do a "save as" and use the "overstrike"
feature to start entering immediately. Be sure and include crop marks or a .3
larger box, for plate alignment, on your templates.

The Printer - Like
any other piece of equipment that generates "mess" it doesn't hurt
to occasionally clean it. Don't take your machine apart. Just take the cartridge
out and gently run a vacuum hose around the inside. It is amazing how much regular
dust (even from the paper) accumulates inside. Taking care of your printer will
give you better prints and save a lot of aggravation.

Print Density - Use
the lowest print density setting possible that is consistent with the look you
want. Anything more than that will waste your money. If you also use your laser
printer for document printing don't forget to increase print density when you
do regular printing.

Printing - If you get
1 bad print out of a 100, it will usually be the first print or two. Always
check them. If you get multiple bad prints go to our "Trouble Shooting"
page under transfers or printer problems.

The Cartridge - Although
the cartridge is designed to "agitate" the toner, sublimation toner
powder is a much coarser powder, than regular printing toner powder is. Every
once in a while it doesn't hurt to gently rock the cartridge back and forth,
especially when you first receive it. Never store it on the end. It is very
important, while storing, to protect it from dust, sunlight and heat.

Heat Press Temperature, Time
and Pressure - There is a direct ratio between time and temperature.
The more you use of one, the less you need of the other. At 400 degrees F(never
higher) you may not need more than 10 seconds. At 355° (never lower) you will
need about 25 - 30 seconds. If the mat on the press is cold, we recommend running
through one heating cycle before you start burning transfers. Pressure should
be light to medium, never heavy. Burn metal plates face down and fabrics face
up.

Direct Burn vs. Burning Through
The Mask (with Black) - A good quality, polymer coated metal plate,
will also have a thin, good quality plastic mask on the plate. You can remove
the mask and burn directly on the plate, or burn through the mask and 90% of
the toner gas will pass through and imprint the plate. A direct burn will be
slightly brighter. Burning through the mask (indirect) means you don't have
to clean the plate (with a citrus cleaner) and will probably at save at least
50% of production time. The reason for the big, time savings is because the
cleaner itself must then also be cleaned off. Citric is slightly acidic and
continues to clean until removed. Some companies only do one or the other; some
do both. With black, print density does not have to change, no matter how you
burn. For more efficiency, try higher temperatures, with less time, when direct
burning (makes the cleaning job easier). Use lower temperatures, with more time,
through the mask (you can profitably use the "down-time" to set up
your next plate). The customer is the ultimate decision-maker. Just make sure
they get as good as they saw. Note - Black toner powder (from laser printers)
does not look good sublimated on white aluminum plates. On the other hand, black
inks (from ink jet printers) look terrible, sublimated on gold, silver or bronze
aluminum plates.

Sublimating Colors (Direct
vs. Mask) - Black is the most opaque color. Any other color is much
less opaque, so there will be more difference, when burning through the mask.
The following is a test we ran, using our royal blue and a printer that has
15 print density settings (1 is the lowest and 15 is the highest)

Setting 2, through the mask-
most letters and solids slightly fuzzy and overall light blue color.

Setting 5, through the mask-
letter and solids very clear, with a nice (but not royal) blue color.

Setting 7, burning through the
mask- too much toner on the transfer. It looked junky.

If we were setting a production job
up, to burn through the mask, that had a blue logo and black text, we would
probably run the blue logo on a 5 and then run the paper back through for the
black text, set on 2. It's not that much trouble to change print density settings
for colors and it will produce a nicer look.

Transfer & Plate Prep
- It is seldom necessary to tape transfers to the plate, if you add registration
marks to your layout. You can use the little double crop marks, in all four
corners, that printers use or even a simple "L" registration mark,
running along two side edges of your layout. After aligning, many fold all four
sides of the paper down over the plate. There is another way. Hold the plate
down with one hand and hold any corner of the paper with the other. Pull that
corner towards the same corner of the metal plate. Keep pulling the paper and
let the corner of the plate actually make a 2 sided tear in the paper of about
3/4". Fold that corner down over the plate. Go to the opposite diagonal
corner and do the same thing. The plate is now locked in. Lift paper and plate
together, by the unfolded sides, to put on the heat press. Note: - if
you use your press to burn plates and textiles it is a good idea to put a full
sized Teflon sheet under and over the textile. The reason is, it is very easy
for sublimation residue to get on the heat press head or bottom platen, when
sublimating textiles. The Teflon will create a barrier and can be cleaned.

Transferring Through The Plastic
Cover On The Plate - The transfer always goes into your press face-up
and the metal is face down. If you are burning through the plastic, lift the
head of your heat press after the timer goes off and immediately remove paper
and metal. Keep the metal face down and put everything to one side, to cool
(don't worry, the paper and plate won't separate). After the plate gets cold,
hold the plate with the fingers of one hand, while you pull the paper with the
other. Paper and the plastic film on the plate will come off together, almost
as easy as peeling a banana.

Transferring Directly On The
Metal - The black toner in an Alpha sublimation cartridge is very powerful.
Even burning through the plastic cover produces a black that is near screen-print
black. There is no denying however, that there is about a 5% loss of resolution
around the edges of the letters because of the slight diffusion effect of the
plastic. If you want to "direct burn", this is the procedure. Remove the plastic
from the plate. Try not to touch the face of the plate with your fingers. Still
place the transfer in your press face up, with the plate face down. When the
timer goes off, you must take the paper off while the plate is still on the
press, and then put it to one side, face up to get cool. How to do this is in
the next paragraph.

The Egg Turner Solution
- If you are burning directly on the metal, the paper should be removed while
the plate is on the press. That means burned fingers or gloves, unless you have
the "magic" Teflon Egg Turner. We like ones with rounded sides and the handle
embedded in the turner. After lifting the heat press head, hold a corner of
the paper and turn the plate over, face up. Hold the plate down, with the edge
of the turner (through the paper) as you start peeling the paper off the plate.
With a little practice you will find that you can easily pull the paper back
as you simultaneously slide the egg turner down the plate, to continue holding
it down.

Cleaning A Direct Burned Plate
- After the plate cools you will see a whitish residue on the black letters.
A wax binder that is in toner, and must be cleaned off, causes this. Lighter
fluid can be used in an emergency. A citrus cleaner is what should be used.
We will supply you with the brand name, and a source, if you can't find it locally.
Procedure: Spray the cleaner on the plate, to wet the letters. Wait 5 seconds
to let it penetrate and then gently spread it around with the smooth side of
a paper towel or unscented Kleenex. Then rub (not scrub) the plate in the grain
direction of the metal. This will remove the wax binder. Important! You must
use some type of metal polisher after using the citrus cleaner (Windex is not
good). If you don't, the citrus will eventually penetrate into the polymer coating
on sublimation metal and turn the lettering brown. We can also supply a source
for the polisher.

Sublimation Metal -
Sublimation metal is ordinary engraver's aluminum (gold, silver, copper and
bronze toned) that has a polymer coating on it. You are sublimating the polymer
coating, not the metal itself. The metal is inexpensive ($2.50 to $3.25 per
12"x 24" sheet) and sturdy. It does, however, scratch easily. When you are doing
a lot of plates make sure that you don't drag a corner of one plate, across
another.

Plate Protection -
Nothing is more aggravating than having to redo a plate because of a scratch.
Eliminate this problem by keeping magazines around your press. As your plates
cool just slip them between the pages of a magazine. Makes them handy to carry
too.

Attaching Plates With Tape
- Plaque pins, tacks and screws may be needed to produce a specific look, but
tape is much faster. Sophisticated adhesive tapes can be purchased that hold
like super glue. Several tapes even do well, up to 400 degrees F ( which means
what you make won't come apart in a car trunk). These tapes are expensive but
you will easily save five times their cost, in faster production time. A specialty
tape company can advise you. We have an excellent source
on our materials resource page. To start, we suggest at least two rolls of Hi-tack
1/2" and 3/4" tape and two rolls of ordinary 1/2" "trophy" tape which is not
as sticky and can come in handy, from time to time.

Our sublimation business
newsletter, "Alphabits", also has a lot of "helpful hints".
Click Here to receive your free subscription,
back issues and free samples.